


A Taste So Sweet

by kayleeschuyler (stephaniebithell)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: A lot - Freeform, Alternate Universe - College/University, BAMF Lance (Voltron), College, Coran is allura's uncle, Explicit Language, F/M, Keith and Shiro are roommates, Keith is ooc, M/M, Socially Awkward Keith (Voltron), allura and coran own a bar, but great at picking up guys, dangerous lance, he is very dramatic, keith shiro hunk pidge and matt are all students, keith swears, let keith sleep, or so he thinks, this is so gay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-21
Updated: 2017-11-21
Packaged: 2019-02-05 01:43:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12784248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stephaniebithell/pseuds/kayleeschuyler
Summary: Keith just wants to sleep.  He had managed to survive finals week and figures he deserves a big nap.  If only his room mate got the memo.  And that is HIS popcorn!





	A Taste So Sweet

Keith groaned as he put down his pen.  He had done it.  He had finished his last final exam for the year.  It had been a rough couple of weeks preparing for the onslaught of exams that was heading his way and he personally didn’t know how he had survived.  He made sure that he had all his stuff packed back into his messenger bag before he took the exam book up to where his professor was sitting at the front of the room.  The older woman glanced up at him as he placed the deceivingly heavy pages into the tray on her desk and gave him a rare smile.  Professor Mendez was notoriously strict in her classes.  The Russian born woman could stare down any student or faculty member who dared to cross her or, heaven forbid, skip a class and the poor victim would be pale and shaking for hours afterwards.  Keith had never seen her smile in the two years that he had been in her Advanced Astrophysics class and was unnerved by the gesture.  He decided the safest course of action was to give her a small nod in return and leave the room as quickly as possible.

 

The crisp fall breeze hit Keith as he bolted out of the science building of Altea University.  The leaves had already turned brown and had covered the path he was using to get back to his dorm room.  He figured that his roommate would be still in his last exam since it had started an hour later than Keith’s and Keith had been lucky enough that he had finished earlier than expected.  It meant that he would have the room to himself and could take advantage of the peace and quiet.  At least for another hour or so before Shiro came back.  Tugging his scarf around his neck and hunching his shoulders to try and trap all the warmth from his coat, he walked through the eerily quiet campus.  It was 3pm and the courtyard would normally be swarming with college students either trying to make it to their next class or using the normally warm afternoon sun to sit on the grass and study. 

 

As he quickly walked home a strong odour began to waft in his direction.  It was a bitter smell, but one that he had become prone to inhaling on a constant basis with his new study habits.  Keith decided he was going to swing past the coffee shop that was located on campus before heading home when the allure of strong coffee became too much for his sleep deprived nose.  The heavy warmth of the Balmaran’s Coffee House embraced Keith as he stepped inside.  There were at least a dozen students scattered around, typing furiously at their laptops and mountains of books in front of them.  He pitied those who still had exams left and gave a grimace of sympathy to one of the guys seated near the counter.  The poor guy looked like he was started to crack under the pressure and it wasn’t till he reached the counter himself did he realise that they knew each other.  Matt Holt was Shiro’s best friend and the older brother of one of Keith’s friends Pidge, aka Katie Holt.  Keith knew better than to disturb Matt when he was like this.  The poor guy would start to crack like this every year without fail, before somehow getting almost perfect scores on every test.  Shaking his head, Keith approached the service area and smiled when he recognised the barista as Shay Weise, the girlfriend of Keith’s other friend Hunk Garrett. 

 

“Keith!  Finished already?” she asked in her typically cheerful manner.

 

“Yeah, last one done and dusted,” Keith said with a tired grin as he slumped over on the bench and cradled his head in his arms, “Thank god.”

 

Shay giggled at Keith’s theatrics, “Well it looks like you have survived another year.  What can I get for you?”

 

“Just my usual thanks.”  A pained groan came from Keith’s right as Matt continued to freak out.  “And another one of whatever he is having,” Keith poked a thumb in Matt’s direction. 

 

“Alright, one pitch-black coffee and one double shot dark espresso with two extra pumps coming up.”

 

Lifting his head as he pulled out his wallet to pay for the drinks, Keith felt like his entire body was starting to lose its strength.  He had spent the last few days on only a couple of hours sleep and it was starting to show.  Considering how many customers were at the coffee house, Keith didn’t have to wait long for his drinks.  Only a few minutes after the order was placed, Shay placed two large take away coffee cups in front of him. 

 

“One large pitch-black coffee for the dark prince himself and one large double shot dark espresso with two extra pumps for the zombie.”

 

“Shay, you are an amazing woman.  If I wasn’t gay and Hunk hadn’t already claimed you.  I would marry you right now,” Keith mumbled as he shot her a grin of thanks. 

 

On his way out, Keith made sure to put Matt’s drink somewhere in front of him while still out of flailing range if he lost it again.  Matt’s head snapped over the instant Keith’s hand had left the cup; his hands wrapping around the drink and took a sip.  The sound of pure bliss that followed him out the door made Keith chuckle to himself before taking a sip of his own drink.  He made a silent promise that he would make sure to spoil Shay rotten on her next birthday.  The woman knew her coffee. 

 

It only took Keith a few more minutes to reach the Voltron Dorms.  It was a co-ed dorm block that had been added onto the campus a couple of years prior and it showed.  The paint was still fresh, the carpets in the common rooms hadn’t been stained beyond recognition from all the alcohol consumed on a weekly basis and it gave the whole place a homely feel.  He took the elevator up to the fourth floor and only ran into one of the freshmen girls who he barely remembered the name of.  His coffee was half gone by the time he arrived at his dorm room.  Fishing the key out of his bag, he opened the door to find two people relaxing on the beanbags that Shiro and he had bought the year before.  Watching a movie on his gaming system and eating what looked to be his super-secret, do not touch, that means you Shiro, popcorn.

 

“What the fuck are you two doing?”  Keith asked as he shut the door and dropped his bag on the ground next to the dresser.

 

The smaller of the two trespassers looked up innocently, “Keith!  My man!  How was your exam?”

 

Keith could feel his annoyance level creeping higher each second that passed, but tried to control the level of hostility in his voice.  “Pidge.  Hunk.  What are you doing in my dorm room?”

 

“Watching Big Hero 6,” Pidge called as she reached over and grabbed and handful of the popcorn from the bowl that Hunk was cradling.

 

“You want to join us?  We made popcorn.  It’s really good!” Hunk said as he glanced over to where Keith was still standing, take away coffee cup in hand.

 

“That’s because it’s  _my_  popcorn Hunk,”

 

“Yeah that’s for that Keith,” Pidge said as she grabbed yet  _another_  handful of popcorn. 

 

Keith could feel his level of annoyance reaching its breaking point.  He always had a short temper, but when people touched his stuff without his permission?  Well, let’s just say it never ended pretty.  He was about to open his mouth and demand that they both leave his room immediately, when the door swung open and revealed a well-built man as he strode in.

 

“Oh good.  I’m not too late!”  Shiro said with a grin as he threw his bag onto his bed and picked Pidge up before taking her seat and setting her on his lap.  Pidge didn’t even blink an eye with being manhandled, seeing as she was used to the treatment from growing up with Shiro and her brother. 

 

Keith’s eye started to twitch, “Shiro?  What the fuck is going on?”

 

“Oh Keith!  You’re home!  How did your exam go?” Shiro asked as he finally realised that Keith had been standing next to the doorway the entire time.

 

“WHY ARE YOU ALL IN MY DORM ROOM?”

 

“Well, technically it’s Shiro’s dorm room as well dude,” Hunk said, “But like Pidge said, we are watching Big Hero 6.”

 

“But why are you doing it here?” Keith could hear the pitiful whine in his voice and cringed at the sound.

 

Pidge, who was starting to look annoyed, “Because your room has these beanbags and the best popcorn on this side of the campus.  Now can you please shut up so we can watch the movie?”

 

“But…  You…  I…”  Keith couldn’t believe it.  His so-called friends had completely taken over his room the one time he just wanted to go to sleep.  Realising that he had no chance of winning against the three of them, he grabbed his pillow from his bed and threw it onto the ground next to Hunk.  “Pass me the bowl Hunk,” he said in a dejected voice.

 

Hunk didn’t even take his eyes off the screen as he swung the bowl over to Keith.  With his eyes closed, he took a calming breath.  He stuck his hand into the bowl to grab some of the popcorn and his fingers scraped the bottom.  His eyes flashed open and glared at the now extremely empty bowl.  He grumbled under his breath as he threw the bowl over his head and reached for the coffee cup he had put down on the ground when he sat down.  His hand, groped empty air, flailing wildly.  The coffee was gone.  Slowly Keith turned his head to look at Shiro who was now cradling the cup in his hand that wasn’t holding Pidge still in his lap.  Whimpering quietly, Keith slumped into his pillow.  How much worse could his day get?

 

\---

 

He just had to do it.  Keith just had to jinx himself, didn’t he?  His day had gone from bad (read having to deal with the interlopers in his room) to worse.  Somehow, he really should find out how, he found himself getting dragged out to have drinks with the rest of his so-called friends at the Castle of Lions, their favourite bar.  The Castle of Lions had been opened in their freshmen year by Coran and Allura Smythe.  Coran was that guy that everyone adopted as their crazy uncle, in Allura’s case he really was her uncle, while Allura was relatively attractive and extremely street smart.  Keith wasn’t a huge partier or drinker but even he found himself in what had become dubbed the Paladin’s Booth once a month.  Shiro, Hunk, Pidge and even Shay could be found in that one specific booth every time they decided to go have a few drinks.  Coran and Allura even made a name plate that was bolted to the booth that declared it permanently reserved.  It probably helped their case that Shiro and Allura had been dating for the past year and she was powerless when it came to his puppy eyes.

 

Keith watched from where he was sitting wedged in between Hunk and Shiro who were currently held in a very heated debate on who was the better girlfriend.  Shay or Allura.  Pidge piped up from where she sat on the edge of the booth next to Shay and across from her brother Matt, that while Shay was a goddess of coffee, Allura was the princess of alcoholic drinks.  Keith smirked to himself, as much as he loved Allura for her giving them half priced drinks for life, Shay would always be a winner in his book.  But that also could be because he was addicted to the black liquid she poured where as he could barely hold his liquor.  A vivid memory of him praying to the porcelain gods in his first week of school came to the front of his mind and even now he gagged a little at the thought of how sick he had felt for two whole days.

 

It wasn’t until he felt the odd sensation of being watched that he looked up from his stein and glanced around the room, or at least the parts that he could see from his cramped position, to see who it was.  This proved to be difficult as the bar was packed with dozens of college kids partying away in celebration of finishing their finals and other adults trying to keep up with the well trained, alcoholic students.  There were plenty people looking in his direction but none were staring at him.  Or at least not in a way that would have made his ‘spider senses tingle’ (thanks Matt for that damn meme).  He kept shifting his gaze, straining his eyes into the dark corners of each booth, trying to follow the feeling when he saw them. 

 

The startling, ice blue eyes that were staring right back at him.  He couldn’t see who they belonged to as whoever they were, were seated in the furthest corner of the room from where Keith was sitting.  The light above seemed to be broken, which was odd for the Castle of Lions.  Coran was extremely particular about the maintenance of the place and he would never leave a light unrepaired before they opened.  Keith looked over to where Coran was serving customers at the bar.  He was busy but perhaps he should go and speak to him about the light.  Maybe it had only just happened and he hadn’t had a chance to fix it.  Downing the dregs of his drink, Keith motioned for Shiro and Matt to move so that he could shuffle out of the booth as smoothly as possible.  He looked back over at the dark corner as he stood only to notice that the eyes had disappeared.  Had they even been there at all?  Maybe that drink had affected him more than he thought.

 

It took him a full minute of weaving in and out of groups of wriggling bodies to reach the bar.  It had a few people waiting patiently, some not so patiently, to be served as Allura and Coran raced behind the bar.  Keith moved to where Coran seemed to be situated and waited his turn, figuring that he would order another round of drinks for his friends while he was there.  It didn’t take long for him to reach the front of the line and once he had grabbed Coran’s attention, he leant over and asked for a beer.

 

“No problem my boy!” Coran called before he could continue his order.

 

“Make that two, Coran.” A smooth voice said from next to Keith’s right shoulder.  A tanned hand placed a $50 bill on the bar and Keith noticed that the hand was well maintained, the nails almost looked professionally manicured.  He turned to look at who had spoken and felt his entire body stiffen.  The tanned hand matched the skin tone of the very fit and well-dressed man standing in front of him.  The obviously designer shoes, tight black pants and blue satin shirt suited the stranger perfectly.  With styled short brown hair and perfectly white and straight teeth, Keith could feel his gayness meter rising through the roof.  But the one feature that he noticed.  The one thing that caused his heart to pound and flutter at the exact same time.  Were his eyes.  They were the same ice blue eyes that had been watching him from across the room.  Keith’s mouth started to dry up as he stared into those eyes and he almost missed what the stranger had started to say.

 

“So what’s your name pretty boy?”

 

“K…K…K-Keith.”  He kicked himself as he stuttered.  Since when had he ever stuttered when talking to a guy?  Keith may be socially inept but the one thing that he had going for him was that he could pull himself together to talk up potential dates.

 

“Keith huh?”  Blue eyes asked with a smirk.  Those unfairly soft looking lips pulled to reveal his shinning white teeth that looked almost unnaturally white.  Keith felt his heart give out when he heard his name spoken in that sultry voice.  This.  Was.  Not.  Fair.  How could anyone be this good looking?  Sound so sexy?  Or make Keith feel even gayer than what he had been not even five minutes ago?

 

“Uh…Yeah.  What’s yours?  Blue?” Keith asked as Coran produced their drinks and proceeded to hand back the change to…

 

“Blue?”  How could a head tilt be so cute and so sexy at the same time?

 

Taking a huge gulp of his beer, Keith used the moment to steady himself.  “Blue, like your eyes.”

 

“HA!”  Blue barked a laugh as he swirled his glass around as he pondered something.  Nodding to himself he looked up from his drink and Keith suddenly couldn’t hear any of the noise that surrounded them.  He lost himself in the depths of those eyes as he waited with baited breath for what he would say next.

 

“Well, my name _is_ Lance.  But I like Blue as well.  But for tonight, pretty boy?  You can call me _yours_.”  Blue, no Lance, said as he leaned into Keith’s personal space. 

 

It was then that Keith felt a strange sensation tingling in the back of his mind.  It wasn’t a feeling that he was used to and had only really felt it once in his adult life.  It caused his heart to clench, not in excitement, but in fear.  He hadn’t felt this feeling since he had been mugged in his freshman year.  He had decided to take a shortcut through the park that bordered the school on his way home from the public library where he had been studying all evening.  It was late and he had foolishly decided to put his headphones in so he didn’t hear the footsteps following him in the dark.  It wasn’t until the sensation that he was feeling now kicked in that he knew he was being stalked.  But by then it was too late.  The group of five older guys, who were all armed with guns and knives, pounced on him.  Taking his bag and while one kept him on the ground with a gun pointed in his face, the rest ransacked his stuff.  Taking his laptop, phone and wallet.  It took him over an hour of sitting on the cold hard ground before he had finally realised what had happened and had grabbed his bag and raced back to his dorm room.

 

Keith struggled to understand why he was feeling like this.  Why was he feeling like he was in danger?  He had never felt like this before in the Castle of Lions, Coran and Allura were well known for happily throwing people out when they became too much.  Quite literally in Allura’s case.  So Keith knew that it wasn’t because some drunkard was about to start a fight.  In fact there wasn’t a single person near him that should be setting off his instincts.  Unless…  No.  It couldn’t be Lance.  Could it?  Lance had barely said anything to him, hell he had bought Keith’s drink before even saying a word!

 

“Well pretty boy?  What do you think?  Want to have a taste of this?”  God help Keith’s soul.  Lance’s gaze had completely focused on him.  Keith suddenly realised what it felt like to be a prey animal under the gaze of a dangerous predator.  The feeling of complete helplessness, the knowledge that you had no power over what happened next and the clarity that his life was on the line.  He didn’t know why he felt like this with Lance but something in him was screaming at him to get away.  To run.

 

“I…Um…My friends…” Keith tried to say but he couldn’t seem to find the words.  His eyes were locked on Lance’s and he felt a cool hand reach up and grab his chin. 

 

“I am sure your friends won’t mind if you get home a little late now.  Come on pretty boy, I want to get to know you a bit better.”

 

All the fight in Keith was gone.  Those few words had been enough for him to forget why he had been fighting this feeling all along.  Why had he even been scared of Lance to begin with?  Lance was safe.  Lance was warm.  Lance was everything he could ever need.  Keith felt his body relax into Lance’s grip, a smile grew on his face and he hummed softly.  Too softly for anyone to hear of the buzzing of the bar yet Lance seemed to.

 

“Much better.  Now how about we get out of here?”  As Lance turned Keith towards the door, a shout broke through the haze.

 

“KEITH!”  Shaking his head, Keith could feel the heavy fog leave his brain.  “KEITH!” 

 

“Shiro?”  Keith mumbled as he suddenly felt the body that had been supporting him disappear.

 

“Keith there you are.  We are heading home.  Matt passed out again,” Shiro said with a chuckle at his best friends antics.  “Keith?  Are you ok?”  Shiro seemed to have noticed that Keith wasn’t all together with it.  Keith could feel his body trying to gain control, his steps uncoordinated and wobbly.  “Man you are such a light weight.  Come on buddy, let’s get you home.”

 

“Ok,” Keith slurred as he leant against Shiro’s sturdy body, allowing himself to be lead away from the bar and onto the street where the others were waiting.  Hunk was currently supporting a barely conscious Matt while Shay had a slightly intoxicated Pidge on her back.  Once they were all together again, the group started to make their way back to the Voltron Dorms.  As they walked (stumbled) slowly home, Keith knew he was the only one that felt it.  The feeling of being watched.  He turned his head slightly until he caught sight of them.  Those ice blue eyes that would haunt him until the day he died. 

 

\---

 

As he watched the group of friends walk away from the roof of the Castle of Lions, Lance allowed himself a moment of pride.  He had finally found someone who had broken out of his trap, albeit with some help, but still.  Lance wasn’t one of the best without cause.  Just thinking of his almost victim had his instincts racing.  The urge to go back out there, take out all of this friends so that he could have some alone time with Keith was tempting.  But Lance knew that it wouldn’t be worth the risk.  As much as he wanted Keith all to himself, he knew that having five humans as collateral damage wasn’t worth the hassle.  As much as the boys’ blood sang to him.  Oh his blood.  Just thinking of it caused Lance’s fangs to drop from where he had them tucked away as to not alert the humans that he was different.  Snorting to himself, Lance realised that he still sometimes forgot that he was in fact a vampire.  A 150 year old vampire who had hundreds of kills under his belt and was acknowledged as one of the best hunters in his clan.  His sire was proud of who Lance had become, a vampire who never let a victim get away.  Not once.  And Lance wasn’t going to let this one be the one who got away.  No sir.  He would track him down to the ends of the earth if that is what it took to get a taste of his blood.  Maybe, just maybe, he might even turn him. 

 

“Soon, pretty boy.  You will be mine,” Lance said before he allowed the shadows to overtake him once again.

**Author's Note:**

> so did you see the twist at the end coming? 
> 
> i realised after i had written it that it sounds like Lance roufied Keith instead of using his abilities but huh i guess that is kinda the same thing
> 
> https://www.tumblr.com/blog/kaylee-schuyler


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